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whatevs.org presents... by Jason Nummer Episode 18: Scarlett Johannson / Bjork (4/21/07) | ||
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CONEY RATING SYSTEM |
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0-10 Coneys – Garbage OAD = Original Air Date* (*To be fair, coneys will be awarded the same as they were the first time they aired) |
| PRE-SHOW COMMENTS |
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In my preshow comments for the Julia-Louis Dreyfus episode back in March, I pointed out that an emerging trend this season has been Lorne falling back on familiar hosts - probably as counteraction to his slimmed down cast. Scarlett Johansson, who last hosted under 1 ½ years ago, held her own during her SNL debut, but by no means did it warrant such a hasty return. Johansson was likely booked for this weekend to promote “The Nanny Diaries”, but that film has since been pushed to a September release. With this in mind, perhaps she should have been moved to musical guest to support the long-rumored “Scarlett Sings Tom Waits” album instead?
Reasoning aside, a quick revisit of her 1/14/06 episode does bring back fond memories. Johansson handled live comedy very well, but it was strong writing that took center stage as we were given the wonderful “Live Duluth” and “Once in a Lifetime Jewelers” - the later of which is still ranked as an example of Sudeikis‘ best work. If Scarlett once again gives 110% and the sketch caliber is matched, this episode should come out on top of last weekend’s dull Shia LaBeouf outing.
Another guest making her sophomore visit to SNL this weekend is Björk. She first appeared with host Brendan Fraser way back on 10/18/97 - an episode now noted for the first appearance of Chirs Kattan’s Mango. Maybe it was America’s immediate fascination of Kattan’s sexually ambiguous foreigner, but Björk was limited to only one song that evening (for the curious, it was Bachelorette from her not-yet-released-at-the-time “Homogenic” album). With a new CD set for 5/7/07, I’m hoping for two songs this time. |
| THE GOOD | THE BAD |
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Bjork, complete with a 10-piece Icelandic female vocal and brass section, continued to expand Season 32’s brilliant at times musical envelope. At 41-years-old, the barefooted Bjork danced her way through two tracks off the upcoming “Volta” album starting with the Timbaland produced “Earth Intruders”. Both songs were fascinating live performances and she left SNL’s next musical guest, Linkin Park, an impossible act to follow. I also can’t recall if I’ve ever seen a band on SNL using not one, but two laptops. So best.
Alec Baldwin not withstanding, but of all the 2005-2006 season hosts who have already returned, Scarlett Johansson has proven to be one of the better ones (besting both Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Dane Cook). Hearing her hilarious singing voice during the monologue and watching her great take as a female Kuato was some of the funniest stuff SNL gave us this month. That said, I wasn’t too surprised to see Johansson has also already nabbed herself a recurring character – Lexy from the “Mike’s Marbleopolis” sketch. You may remember Johansson’s first take as Lexy during her debut episode last year, only that time she was working for her Dad at “Mike & Toni’s Chandelier Galaxy”. Lexy again had lines like “how ‘bout this one or ‘dat one” while pointing out green screened marble columns, and the audience really ate it up (I credit the accent). Marble columns. Elegant, sturdy and bursting with class. Ya’ gotta get a marble column!
After Samberg’s strong showing in last week’s otherwise boring Shia LaBeouf episode, I wondered if he’d be able to keep a hot streak going. Tonight he did just that with not only a great Digital Short about his brother-in-law Roy, but also by dusting off his “Kuato and the Quaids” sketch last seen over five months ago. It wasn’t all roses though. He also trotted out his American Idol Sanjaya impression during the monologue which unfortunately wasn’t much different from the first time we saw it back in the Peyton Manning episode. Some say almost as unnecessary of a return since the back-to-back appearances of Fred Armisen as Judge Larry Seidlin last month.
Forte continued to add to his impressive list of accomplishments this season with tonight’s Earth Day song during Weekend Update. How often do you hear songs full of Battlefield Earth references and lyrics about dumping unused paint directly into the ocean? Forte. His buzz has barely stopped since 2002. |
Up until January’s surprisingly good Piven episode, I had been championing Jamie Pressly’s October outing as Season 32’s best. Apparently, Lorne and crew agreed. Not only did Wiig recycle her “Cider in the Fall” sketch into ”Coffee in the Spring” for the Manning episode, but three other sketches that made their debut with Pressly, (Wigg’s horny reporter, “Kuato & the Quaids” and “Mrs. Hasting’s Daughter”) all returned tonight. As a result, chunks of Johansson’s episode unfairly felt like Pressly redux. This definitely didn’t do much to counteract my complaint over the last few episodes that SNL is again relying too much on old ideas - a trend they finally seemed to be moving away from earlier this season. I like my sketch comedy fresh, not predictable.
Despite not having been seen since the wretched Donald Trump episode back in April 2004, tonight’s sixth appearance of Hammond and Poehler’s “Live with Regis & Kelly” felt as stale as ever. We were again bombarded with Poehler’s used-to-be funny Ripa impression spouting off the same lines as always – namely, complaining that she doesn’t know any of the references Regis is making. Show me something new guys. You’ve only had about three years between appearances of this spoof. On the bright side, Kattan wasn’t brought back for another round as Gelman.
Up until tonight, Robert Smigel’s TV Funhouse segments had been doing fairly well as far as Season 32 standards were concerned. We had the wonderful “Kobayashi” hot dog eating segment from Baldwin’s episode, plus great outings with “Diddy Kiddies” (Benning) and “2007 Year in Review” (Piven). Even the semi forgettable ones: Manning’s Dora the Explorer parody and “Republican Attack Ads” from the Ludacris episode had a few strong jokes at the least. Too bad tonight’s “Torboto” was bad enough for all of them. A mix between anti-war jokes and a quasi rehash of the cartoon violence from 2005’s still talked about “Shazzang!” segment (Ferrell 5/14/05), Torboto was in pretty poor taste and I didn’t find myself laughing once. 1 coney only because the announcer pronounced “robots” as “ro-bits”. |
| THE BOTTOM LINE! |
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Bjork dominated the episode with two perfect coney performances and Scarlett Johansson was again a wonderful SNL host. Too bad most of the show felt like a repeat of Jamie Pressly’s SNL episode. Given how funny Johansson can be on this show, she really deserved better material. Then again, with the Virginia Tech tragedy happening five days prior to broadcast, it must have been a difficult week to write sketch comedy. Credit to SNL for wisely avoiding too much topical humor, I just wish the recurring sketch back-up plan had been a little stronger. |
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CONEY COUNT |
| SKETCH | RATING |
1. Cold Opening: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton's Racial Rehab Center |  |
2. Monologue: Johansson | |
3. Sketch: Live with Regis and Kelly |  |
4. Sketch: Mrs. Hasting’s Daughter | |
5. SNL Digital Short: Roy Rules |  |
6. Sketch: Mike’s Marbleopolis | |
7. Sketch: Flirting Reporter | |
8. Music: Bjork “Earth Intruders” |  |
9. Weekend Update |  |
10. Sketch: Kuato and the Quaids | |
11. Sketch: Newsmakers with Jane Pauley | |
12. Cartoon by Robert Smigel: Torboto | |
13. Bjork “Wanderlust” | |
TOTALS | 31 / 52 Coneys |
= John Belushi
= Amy Poehler
= Tim Meadows
= Melanie Hutzel
= Charles Rocket
= Self-Explanatory